18th March 2012 Dan Dennett: Ants, terrorism, and the awesome power of memes http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=KzGjEkp772s&feature=endscreen&NR=1 Philosopher Like the fluke that makes an ant put its self interest over scaling the top of a grass, ideas can do the same. Ideas are like viruses. A huge biological effect: the subordination of genetic interest to other interests. No other species does anything like this. Human beings have these ideas to die for freedom, etc. The idea of replicating ideas by passing from one brain to the other The ideas are very easy to misuse A meme ( /mim/; MEEM)*1+) is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.[3] Analogous to Jared Diamonds Germs theory in Guns, G & S - A lot of toxic ideas are spreading. Memes are spreading around the world and they are wiping our whole culture wiping out languages, traditions and practices. We (US) have lot of dangerous ideas lying around (pornography, ..) which we are tolerant to because we are a free society, but there a lot of people around the world for whom these are sensitive. Thus, by spreading our technology, education, etc, we act as vectors to these memes, which are viewed by the hosts as a dire threat to their memes, the memes that they are prepared to die for. Thus, weve got to get the facts right and try to spread a relatively benign mutation of the same.

Dan Dennett: Cute, sexy, sweet, funny Darwins inverted Reasoning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzN-uIVkfjg&feature=relmfu A critique of Darwin in 18, Robert Beverley MacKenzie, 1868: In the theory with which we have to deal, Absolute Ignorance is the artificer; so that we may enunciate as the fundamental principle of the whole system, that, IN ORDER TO MAKE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL MACHINE, IT IS NOT REQUISITE TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT. This proposition will be found, on careful examination, to express, in condensed form, the essential purport of the Theory, and to express in a few words all Mr. Darwins meaning: who, by a strange inversion of reasoning, seems to think Absolute Ignorance fully qualified to take the place of Absolute Wisdom in all the achievements of creative skill. Exactly. Another creationist pamphlet read, Do you know any building that didnt have a builder ? Yes No (If you answered Yes for any of the above, please give details) Another inverted reasoning of Darwin Apples are not relishing because they are sweet, but because our brain was wired to like high energy stuff. The reasoning extends also to sexiness, and cuteness. If women are inherently funny, how will nature get Chimps to mate? Women like the dirty diapers of their own children. It is also interesting that this logic extends to humor. This would mean humor was an evolutionary necessity. Speakers theory (first author, Mathew Hurley the Hurley Model) What about funny? Same story. A neural system wired to reward the brain for doing a grubby clerical job. The joy of debugging!!! It helps us tweak and tune our neural system correctly. Helps us learn the architecture and the functional architecture of the brain.

Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our decisions? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X68dm92HVI&feature=related Behavioral economist